Mark Perry, director of product planning and strategy for Nissan North America, told us late last month that the automaker would be in the black with its inaugural electric model largely because of years of work developing and investing in battery technology.

The battery generally represents the most expensive part of the electric vehicles slated to roll out during the next five years. According to a Bloomberg interview with Masahiko Otsuka, president of Nissan’s battery-making joint venture with NEC Corp, Automotive Energy Supply Corp., Nissan has the ambitious target of bringing the cost per kilowatt-hour for its battery pack to less than $370 per kilowatt-hour, down from an estimated $472 per kilowatt-hour for its batteries today.